This invention relates to a printing and monitoring apparatus and, more particularly, to a portable self-contained apparatus capable of exposing film to an optical image or displaying the optical image on a screen.
Prior to producing a hard copy of an optical image, it is often desirable to view the image in order to determine any visible errors or to simply discriminate against printing a particular image. Viewing the image prior to producing a hard copy on film may save time and expense by avoiding undesirable prints. However, conventional image printing devices lack a monitor for viewing the image, or at best, provide a separate large screen monitor for projecting the image.
For example, a printing device as shown in FIG. 1, is described in Japanese laid-open patent publication no. 3-102981. An image on a microfilm 101 is irradiated by an illumination lamp 100 and is projected to a large screen 105 or a reader printer 112. Specifically, the image from microfilm 101 is transmitted along a first optical path to a scanning mirror 102 to either an optical path switching mirror 103 or a reflecting mirror 107, along a second optical path. If optical path switching mirror 103 is in position to intercept the second optical path (indicated by the solid line), the image is reflected over third and fourth optical paths via mirror 103 and reflecting mirror 104 to large screen 105 for displaying the image.
If a hard copy of the image is required, then optical path switching mirror 103 is adjusted out of the first optical path, as indicated by the broken-line, so that the image is transmitted from scanning mirror 102 to reflecting mirror 107. The image is reflected to reflecting mirror 108 along a third optical path and thereafter reflected to a linear photosensor 106 along a fourth optical path. Linear photosensor 106 reads the transmitted image and supplies image data for amplification and processing by an amplifier 109 and an image processing circuit 110, respectively. The processed image data is supplied to a printer 112, via an interface 111, for producing a hard copy of the image.
However, this conventional arrangement is undesirable since it requires a significant amount of space. Further, the above apparatus is not portable since it requires an optical system comprising a plurality of optical paths for displaying the image on a large-size screen or a printer for producing hard copies.